Covering Bases
by Minja
Summary: Before Ron can make his move on Hermione, he’s got to figure out how Harry feels about her. But with a disgruntled Ron asking a befuddled Harry vague questions, can anything come from it? Or more yet, can Harry’s answers give Ron the clearance he need


Title: Covering Bases  
  
Author: Minja  
  
Rating: G  
  
Pairing: R/Hr.  
  
Warnings: Slight OotP spoiler..(well, not really, but one thing mentioned won't make sense. However, it is minor, and shouldn't offer too much a hindrance should you have not read OotP). A somewhat confused Harry, but come on now.anyone who had read OotP will know that Harry doesn't exactly understand girls...(I won't say anymore, I'd hate to spoil anyone's fun reading).  
  
Summary: Before you can make the first step, you've got to make sure your bases are covered. Before Ron can make his move on Hermione, he's got to figure out how Harry feels about her. But with a disgruntled Ron asking a befuddled Harry vague questions, can anything come from it? Or more yet, can Harry's answers give Ron the clearance he needs to go ahead? {Slight R/Hr shipping.}  
  
Author's Note: Yes, I know that you CAN buy Quidditch Through the Ages, and I know that the one available to us muggles doesn't have pictures. I'm not sure if pictures are referred to in the books, but I'm assuming that there ARE pictures in the books' QTtA. So, with author's liberty, I'm saying that Harry's version of QTtA (we can call it a special addition) had pictures.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Hey, Harry?"  
  
It was a calm Saturday afternoon and Ron and Harry seemed to be the only ones lounging in the Gryffindor common room. Perhaps the gorgeous weather had lured everyone else outside, or maybe it was because finals were the next week, and many people had decided to take the responsible approach and study sometime other than the night before, but no matter what the reason was, Ron and Harry found themselves alone.  
  
"Yeah?" Harry asked absently. He was flipping idly through Quidditch Through the Ages, not actually processing the text, but merely glancing at the pictures. Although rather low-key entertainment, the quidditch players zooming back and forth had Harry's attention for the moment. In fact, had he not been so preoccupied, he might have noticed Ron's odd tone. As it was, he had no clue.  
  
"Harry..." Ron sputtered slightly. He had wanted to be nonchalant about this, but it wasn't going well. He didn't feel like making a big deal out of it. It just had to be said. "What do you think of Hermione?"  
  
"In the library."  
  
Harry still wasn't paying attention. Infact, he was being a rather miserable friend, Ron noticed. He made a mental note of Harry's lack of focus and decided to make him pay sometime later. Yet at the moment, he was just exasperated.  
  
"No, I asked what you thought of her, not where she is." Ron snorted slightly, drifting off into thought for a moment. "Even I could have guessed that on my own..."  
  
Harry, for the first time, seemed to actually come into the conversation. He shook his head, appearing to clear it for a second, before flipping the page of his book to one with just text. Then he glanced up and over at Ron, who had a slightly glazed look in his eyes.  
  
"Ron?" He asked a bit confused. He could have sworn Ron had been talking mere seconds ago. Now he was lost in thought.  
  
Ron blinked Harry back into focus as he was jilted from his ponderings. "Yeah?"  
  
"You asked what I think of Hermione?"  
  
Harry was struggling slightly. He had not meant to tune Ron out, yet he had been it that pleasantly apathetic state which comes before studying, and he had been enjoying it. He was still a bit muddled. "Like what do you mean?"  
  
Ron suddenly became interested in Harry's book. He snatched it from Harry without warning and began to flip the pages. Harry was still confused. He had been flipping a book; Ron was asking weird questions; his book was now gone. Maybe the fireplace was too hot. He felt sleepy. Harry spoke again. "What do you mean?"  
  
Ron just shrugged, staring hard at the seeker who zoomed back and forth in the portrait on the page. "I don't know."  
  
Despite a prolonged time of general confusion, Harry's mind was beginning to clear. Well, at least to the point of being able to asses the situation.  
  
Ron had lost his mind. If Harry was muddled, Ron clearly was.  
  
"Um, do I think she's in trouble?" Harry offered. Ron shook his head.  
  
"That's not what I mean." Harry sat still for a moment, then suddenly he was seeing things a bit more clearly. While he still had no idea what Ron's problem was, he could tell there was one. That was a start. He waited for a second before trying again.  
  
"She's, um, Hermione?" He half-asked Ron, understanding that Ron needed the answer to a question, not really an opinion. The trouble was, Harry didn't know the question. Maybe he'd missed it while he had been reading.  
  
"Yes." Came Ron's answer. Funny, his voice was sounding angry. Harry was confused again. He'd said something, but not the right thing. Okay. This was odd.  
  
"Um, she's Hermione. She's got brown hair. She's smart..." Harry tried to think of anything he could that would describe Hermione. He just settled for spouting them off as they came to mind. It would be too complicated to evaluate them. "Hermione, Hermione....her last name's Granger, she's got a cat, she's my friend, she's smart-"  
  
"You've said that twice!" Ron interrupted curtly. Harry stared appraisingly at Ron for a moment, wondering if Ron was going to jinx him for mentioning Hermione's intelligence more than once. Why was he so mad about that? Had he gotten a hold of one of Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes? Were there ones that made you too crazy for class?  
  
"Um, she's nice, a nice friend..."  
  
"She's a great friend!" Ron said loudly. Harry was beginning to wonder if talking was such a good idea. Ron was clearly unstable and was glaring at him evilly for some unknown reason. Harry shrugged.  
  
"Yeah, I guess she's like a sister or something." He said when at a loss. Ron seemed to lose some of his evil eye when Harry said that. Harry noticed this and continued to mutter incoherently, hoping to appease whatever evil spirit had possessed Ron and was making him ask The Boy Who Lived weird questions on a peaceful Saturday when all he wanted to do was sit and stare at pictures of people playing Quidditch.  
  
"Hermione's like a sister, I guess, not that I know what one is like, but she's there a lot and she's a good friend, she nags me occasionally, but she's there..." He motioned silently in the air. Harry was somewhat afraid to speak too much. Ron nodded solemnly, yet a huge grin broke out on his face.  
  
"Thanks mate!" Came the energetic reply and Ron bolted from the room.  
  
Harry sat stunned. Then he picked up Quidditch Through The Ages off the floor and began to peruse it with a settled apathy and fuzzy mind.  
  
Ron was weird.  
  
He was tired.  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
Finis.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please take a second and review. You have no idea how much it means to me, and every review, especially constructive ones, are very much appreciated. - Minja 


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